It seems that these two explanations are directed toward two different varieties of eloquence. One is a skill. The language of diplomacy can have serious implications. A word poorly chosen can introduce a range of meanings with dreadful unintended consequences. Is it any wonder that the European Union spends nearly half a billion dollars a year to ensure that regulations, treaties, and other official documents are carefully translated into the twenty-three languages in use within its borders?
The other is an art in the fullest and most positive sense of the word. Moshe Rabbeinu’s orations to Am Yisrael offer us the opportunity to be elevated and inspired in the weeks ahead, to acquire for ourselves the eloquence of Torah that is available to every Jewish heart that will open itself to the power of its message.
Young people have often asked me about the nature of Jewish prayer. How can reciting the same words again and again enable one to experience the sense of awe for which the spirit yearns? There is tension, it is suggested, between a fixed liturgy and personal expression. Sometimes frustrated by the demands of the daily routine, we yearn to let the spirit soar unfettered by set requirements. “When was the last time you experienced that feeling?” I often ask. Typical answers are standing at the Kotel for the first time, on top of Masada, or at the siyum of the Daf Yomi. “What was your reaction?” I ask. The most frequent reply: “I was speechless.”
At the beginning of the laws of tefillah, the Rambam explains that the fixed liturgy was the response to the dispersion of Am Yisrael among the peoples of the world. No longer able to express themselves in a single language, they lost the ability to articulate their needs and the appropriate praise of Hashem that should precede them. No matter how adept we are in our own vernaculars, however, our attempts at verbalizing our deepest religious feelings often come out sounding trivial. This is to be expected: no one can just pick up a musical instrument without practice and produce beautiful music. Like Moshe Rabbeinu, may we learn to express ourselves through the language of Torah, endowing its hallowed phrases with our own spirituality.
